Nachricht Nummer : 399 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 34 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary on 14 January, 1994 Kopienempfänger : /REG/NEWS/DIARY/WAM, /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN, /SOC/CULTURE/BOSNA-HERZGVNA, /SOC/CULTURE/CROATIA, /SOC/CULTURE/YUGOSLAVIA Erstellungsdatum : 07.02.1994 13:06:00 W+1 Zagreb Diary 14 January, 1994 Dobar dan, Tomorrow the planned camp on the "other side" in Pakrac should start, but up to now we don't have the 'blue passports" (United Nations Passports) for the 4 participants yet, neither do we have any information about the containers, which should shelter them there. The biggest problem however is how to break the news on the Croatian side of Pakrac. The bad experiences after our short visit with the volunteers in September last year are fresh in our head, they weren't very hopeful. Also that in the last months I regularly was accused of being a "Chetnik" or at least friends of "Chetniks". The last week however two of our volunteers, from whom one was the daughter of the first "Civil Affairs" commander of the UNPROFOR in UNPA West and so they had special UNPROFOR passes were a lot more hopeful. They told on the working place that they would go in one of the next days to visit the "other side" and the women in their group said that it was no problem for them. After six months living and working with the volunteers they have build enough trust towards our project to understand that we are not in Pakrac to betray them. Getting betrayed is maybe one of those "magic" terms which is one of the key feelings of people in Pakrac. First of all the people on the Croatian side feel betrayed by their neighbours who left the town to go south (the "Serbian" side) just before the shelling started in 1991, they also feel betrayed by UNPROFOR, from which their Croatian government said that they would take care that they would soon live normal again (returning to their houses, if their houses are situated at what is now the "other side") and nothing really happened in two years, betrayed by their national politicians, who gave them the idea that a free Croatian Croatia would give them a lot of wealth, at least a better situation than before the free elections. On "the other side" the people feel betrayed by their politicians and the ones in Beograd, just because of the same (last) reason as the people on the Croatian side, but than just the other way round, all Serbs in one state would give than a big push forwards in wealth. And most of them are living far under the living standards of 3 years ago, they also haven't seen their houses (which are now mostly situated on the Croatian side) for nearly 3 years. Besides that thousand and one promises are made on both sides by all kind of relief and humanitarian organisations, which often haven't been kept. It is no wonder that those people are afraid to be hurt again by the people they are now working and living together with, our International Volunteers, to whom they have opened their hearths and told about their pain. Months ago I wrote walking in Pakrac is not walking on a mine- field alone, but mostly walking on eggs, in the coming weeks that is more true than ever before it seems. Things like that are not made any easier by the International politics, today f.e. the special envoy of the UN for former Yugoslavia, Mr. Akashi, said that the UNPROFOR can and could have done a lot more in the UNPA's than what they have done so far, even within the mandate given to them. Especially on for the points of demilitarisation and the establishing of a cease-fire a lot of possibilities are still not been used, according to him. Although the returning of refugees and displaced people to their houses can't start before a final peace agreement is made. For me it was just another quiet day in Zagreb, but just a few hundred kilometres south it was "hard rain", in Sarajevo today about 300 rounds of artillery and mortar fire came down, shot from Bosnian Serbian position, according the UNPROFOR monitors, the BiHarmija reacted with about 11 rounds. In Olovo around 300 shells landed, fired from Bosnian Serbian army. Prime Minister of BiH Mr. Silajdzic said that he is going to ban to peace talks in Geneva if the shelling on Sarajevo wouldn't stop soon. An other UNPROFOR spokesmen said today that if UNPROFOR will leave BiH it surely will become a second Afghanistan. At the same day the UN monitoring mission had a small party, it is today their second anniversary in this area (but it looks that they will stay for some years more). The monitoring mission has came more or less unharmed through their period so far, at this moment there are 578 monitors from 31 countries in the area and up to now only 19 got wounded, from whom only 6 had to be repatriated home for further treatment. Which is in fact a wonder if you see under which conditions some of them have to work, I remember the book from a Dutch UN monitor and how their only transport possibility in Sarajevo was an old Volkswagen Golf, driving with 120 through the town. In Croatia it wasn't all quiet as well, again nearly the whole Zadar- Biograd front-line was under fire from Serbian Krajina Army and also in Sibenik some grenades came down. But still, as always, the buses to Split drove normally. Just to make clear that war comes in different forms, people abroad forget some times that life continues as normal as it can be. Mir from somewhere in Hrvatska, Wam ------------------------------------------------------ "Zagreb Diary" can be found on a lot of different electronic networks, it is copyright free and can be ported to any network or other means of communication you like, but please drop my a line, you can reach by sending a message to wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de . Zagreb Diary is dedicated to Tyche, Pjort and Rik, so that they found out what there father have been doing all that time in Zagreb. Financial support for Grassroot relief work in Croatia or BiH can be send to Kollektief Rampenplan (atn. Lylette, Postbox 780, 6130 AN Sittard, Netherlands, tel:. +31-46-524803 and fax: +31-46-516460 or to Zagrebacka Banka, Zagreb, accountnr.: 2440291594, to Kat, Pieter Jan Herman Fredrik, Brace Domany 6 6fl nr3 (postbox 33), 41000 Zagreb. Please notify me if you send or have send any donations. Old numbers can be found by sending a message's with as subject "FILES" to pakrac.info@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de, to order a file send a message with subject "SEND " to same address. ## CrossPoint v2.93 ##